424D57

Hard chrome release that came in my STI (exec) was hard chromed all the way around. As I understand the process, you *could* do just the end if you wanted to, but I can't imagine cost difference would be noticeable on a part that small and can't come up with any likely difference in function. Definitely should not decrease the life expectancy of the part. -424D57

Recently picked up a couple old sv tubes. One of them didn't drop free- front of the mag was rubbing against the frame just below the barrel/feed ramp. Removed a few thousandths from the front top of the mag and problem solved. -424D57

Is it stopping at half cock or dropping all the way down? Check the overtravel screw in the trigger- back it out a bunch and check function. Electrical tape around the base of the leaf spring might not mean anything - seems like many leaf springs are too narrow to sit properly in 2011 grips and a common fix is to wrap them in tape to take up the extra space. -424D57

Random tips for ULSC- After holding the slide open for the RO to inspect the chamber, I will ALWAYS personally inspect the chamber and look down into the frame to make sure I see the ground before dropping the slide for hammer down, holster. At least as religiously as my pre-stage prep, the first thing I do when I'm done with a stage is take a deep breath, and very deliberately relax my shoulders. I use this (but I'm sure many other tricks will do) to separate my brain from the pace of running the stage and change over to consciously performing the next steps with thought and without rushing. My personal little reminder that I'm no longer on the clock, and that I should act like it. -424D57

I have to say I really like this answer! -424D57

Another vote for Rudy photochromic racing red here. Red fiber front jumps out at you and they adjust pretty well for nearly any outdoor shooting lighting. -424D57

Montana Gold 155 JHP 5.7 grains titegroup SPP 1.170 OAL 1107 FPS Test barrel: 5" STI -424D57

I'm not sure what the 'low-tech' camera option would cost, but I'm sure I've seen decent slide scanners under $150 which should have software included or at least sufficient drivers to get it done in windows 7 or osx without additional expense. If its the experience/time with which you're concerned, there are also a couple of service options where you can send off the slides and they do the work for you. I've never used one and can't can't say what the pricing options might look like. -424D57

Wow. With 137 views and only one answer that includes "imagine" I think I'll have to strike the dumb part of the question. Thanks Steve! -424D57

Munchkin loves her VQ mark 3 frame with TS barrel, brake, and deltapoint on it. I have to admit its a pretty fun little piece. -424D57

On a 1911 leaf spring at the top of the sear leg is a little tab that extends above the surface which contacts the left sear foot and is often bent forward (towards the muzzle). What is its purpose? I suspect the answer is out there somewhere but I've not yet come up with precise enough search terms here or on google so I figured I'd man up and ask. The curiosity is killing me. -424D57

it wasnt a reversable plug. it was a standard plug for a bushing gun but arent the guide rods the same? When i ordered it it said it would fit all 2011 guns but i guess it was talking bushing 2011s. Yeah, you got the wrong set. There's one for bushing and one for bull barrels. That's why the plug doesn't work. I know the plug wont work because its for bushing barrels but shouldnt the guide rod work with the reverse plug that came in the gun? I figured all flgr for 2011s would be fine. The dragging of the slide that I described is what I think is wierd. Yes the dawson FLGR should work with the factory reverse plug. This is the setup I'm running in my executive and was approved by Dawson after I (like you) ordered the bushing kit instead of bull. -424D57

What followers and springs are you using? -424D57

Trojan no contest. -424D57

After running a full season in production at my request, I'll probably be giving in to my daughter's request for an open rig for next year. Mom has a couple 9 major blasters that the kid runs well enough, and we spend plenty of time talking to other open shooters about their builds, likes/dislikes etc and are starting to ask around for favors to let her shoot various friends guns for evaluation. This will ultimately be an S_I platform build (or buy). My intent is to get her to make notes about her thoughts/feelings on each pistol as she shoots them, and record video with markups in coach's eye for later rewview. I have in mind to compare specific aspects of each gun ie: total muzzle flip how much she gets pushed out of position shot timing grip size/comfort feel during transitions (ability to stop the gun) I also hope to get here to shoot enough different setups to get an idea of how certain features affect these aspects of the firearm - ie do 4" barrels generally behave one way for her vs 5", presence/absence of popple holes, heavily lightened vs full slides etc. She does well with 2011 grip circumference and gun-handling; while it will look funny with the muzzle almost touching her knees while holstered I'm not concerned that the platform is too large. I'm looking for what attributes will best suit her stature directly with regard to shooting. Here's where the question comes in - I'm not a small guy and don't shoot open. Most of the open shooters I know aren't tiny. My daughter is about 70 lbs soaking wet and already has to work diligently to keep minor loads from pushing her back. What am I missing? What are other adult open shooters likely to miss? For you smaller framed shooters out there (or gunsmiths who've worked with smaller framed shooters on builds) what extra considerations did you fined needed accounting? While at the end of the day I suspect it will be like any other gun fit and 100% personal, I'd still like to hear about specific features that shooters/smiths have found relevant specifically for smaller persons as well. Fire away - any and all advice much appreciated. If anyone has memory of previous similar discussions I'd love to review those as well but either my search fu failed miserably or there isn't a whole lot of call for such conversation here. Thanks, Bryan

As Mark mentioned COPS (http://copsrange.com/) is quite close and a great place to shoot. They'll also be hosting the Missouri Fall Classic USPSA match coming up soon here (great timing to sign up!). Arnold Rifle and Pistol club is right around the edge of that 100 mile number (arnoldgunclub.org). We host steel plate pistol matches first and 3rd saturdays, IDPA 2nd saturday, and USPSA last sunday. Membership is required after 3 visits as a guest. -424D57

Another hearty vote for the racemaster here, though I will add that if running 3gun matches the racemaster might make me nervous. Been thinking of picking up a blade tech for MG. -424D57

I built all my STI mags from STI tubes, grams spring/follower kits (11 coil for 140mm mags) and dawson base pads. Eventually tried out the Taran base pads too both worked great. Got all my parts from shootersconnection.com; looks like everything you'd need is in stock currently. I get rid of all the recoil masters in favor of the more tunable FLGR (since you can swap springs easier to find what you like) and because the recoil impulse feels odd to me. A friend however made A this summer with his bone stock STI USPSA double stack including recoil master and always whoops me so I can say with relative certainty you don't "need" to change it out. -424D57

Takes about 15 seconds of trying the tape over glasses thing to get a splitting headache. My kid walks around trap matches for days straight like that. Hell just seeing her starts to give me a headache. I'd go with normal for many. -424D57

Wife uses mostly Dawson +1 SNLs but we've recently moved one of her big sticks to a TTI 4mm to get a little room for her big stage starting mag. All our tubes are STI. 140s you can of course put as big a base pad as will run reliably since you won't get near the max length. SNLs at the moment but I think we're going to try some TTI 7mm soon. At our house 170s get 13 coil grams kits, 140s get 11 coil grams kits. I played with the TTI guts in the big sticks recently during some experimentation, but seemed like no matter what I did the follower would flip at round 28 or 29, so went back to all grams. -424D57

Hey 424, I just bought a STI MM myself and am thinking of replacing the recoil master as well, I am having a lot of issues trying to run factory ammo in it. Which full length guide rod did you use, I'm thinking of getting a dawson precision tooless guiderod and running wolff springs with it. I'd certainly appreciate any feedback!!! I went with a standard 5" Dawson Stainless FLGR and IMSI spring. Don't have any experience with wolff springs or reason to prefer ISMI thats just what I got my hands on first. The tooless guide rod was intriguing, but at the end of the day it seemed like extra expense for something that at best saves me a few seconds of time per week, and at worst is something else to break. As with the wolff springs I don't have any experience with the tooless to suggest it would have problems, just personally didn't see the point in spending more money to add complexity to the system. -424D57 Edit: Forgot to add-- we didn't have any problems running factory ammo in the matchmaster out of the box, so I can't say how relevant our experiences with the MM running 9 major will be. What kinds of problems are you having with factory rounds?

My used 6" .40 had a polymer buffer in it; felt a bit squishy so I tried switching to the aluminum. Not convinced its required but around 6k rounds later the buff just has a little indentation and the gun shoots fine so I've left it in. -424D57

My wife started running major in her matchmaster late last year (when I finally got a press). As far as I can tell its the same gun as the steelmaster, but with a slightly longer comp, so the experience may relate. At first switching to major we had a few stove pipes. Switched to 90deg cheely setback mount and they almost disappeared. When I got above ~1350fps when playing with the load to get some buffer over 165pf, we started having more and more frequent fail to extracts. It seemed like the extractor was hopping off the case rim. To try the easiest fix first (and a change she wanted anyway) I pulled the recoil master in favor of a FLGR and IMSI spring - think I started at 10lbs.. theorizing that the slide wasn't staying locked up quite long enough for the brass to return to size after pressure died down, causing it to be stuck in the chamber when the slide wanted to pull back. I was at least partially right, since occurrence of fail to extract dropped to almost nothing - once-twice per match (as opposed to 1/4 rounds fired. Final fix was an Aftec, after which its run flawlessly. haven't seen the FTE or stovepipe since. I absolutely am not a gunsmith, and absolutely cannot say which of the fixes were necessary to the end result and which were not. To offer a contrary (if heresay) point of view - buddy runs his matchmaster bone stock with major and hardly has any trouble at all. Obviously YMMV. -424D57

Sentry + Tripp mags here. Had the trigger worked and no issues in ~8000 rounds and counting. I did put a FLGR and IMSI spring in at some point for preference, but didn't have any problems before or after. Had a Trojan for a while that ran just as well. -424D57

will an SVI trigger base-titanium bow 1911 work well in an sti trojan frame??? When putting an SVI ITS bow in my sentry, I found the ITS shoe and base too tall for the slot in the STI frame which opens into the trigger guard. I took the material off the top and bottom of the trigger rather than modify the frame. Wide was not a problem and space for the bow was not a problem. I used a medium stone to get me close then fine to smooth everything up - fits better than the original STI trigger now. YMMV - I've only done this once and can't intelligently comment on the build tolerance for the parts from either manufacturer to know if this is a common experience. -424D57